In this blog post I will describe my experiences of migrating a Swift 2.2 app to Swift 3 after installing Xcode 8. I will describe the issues that I run into, as well as the way I am going to solve them. I have written most parts of this blog post chronologically while I was going through the process. If … Read More
Exploring AWS as a backend for a Swift app (3)
Part 3: Run AmazonSwiftStarter with the configured AWS services using the AWS iOS SDK. In the first post I introduced the AmazonSwiftStarter app with a simulated backend. In the second post we did set up the AWS services for the app. In this post we will connect the app with the AWS services, and let everything work together smoothly. Disclaimer: … Read More
Exploring AWS as a backend for a Swift app (2)
Part 2: Configure AWS Services (Cognito, DynamoDB, S3, IAM) using the AWS Console. In the previous post I introduced the AmazonSwiftStarter app with a simulated backend. Now we need to set up the AWS services for the app, and replace the simulated backend with real AWS logic. In this post you will set up the AWS services. At the end … Read More
Exploring AWS as a backend for a Swift app (1)
Part 1: Introduction to the AmazonSwiftStarter demo app and a pattern for backend abstraction. As explained in my previous post I am looking for a replacement of the Parse-backend of an app that I am developing. I decided to explore Amazon Web Services (AWS). I will share my first experiences in this blog. I will use a demo app called AmazonSwiftStarter. This app … Read More
Parse shutdown, the impact, and what to do next?
January 28th hundreds of thousands app developers, including me, received this email from Parse. It has caused a shockwave in the app developer community. It is unbelievable that Facebook, who bought Parse in 2013 for $85 million simply terminates a service that is so widely used (600.000 apps) and appreciated in the developer community. Initially I was, like many others, devastated. … Read More
How to localise images using Asset Catalogs
In one of my projects I need localised images. I like to use Asset Catalogs. I did expect that it would be possible to create and use localised versions of Asset Catalogs: MyImages.xcassets-en MyImages.xcassets-nl This way I can simply create one Asset Catalog for each language that my app supports. I let the iOS localisation infrastructure pick the Asset Catalog … Read More
Independent iOS developer
Since the 1st of August I am an independent iOS developer. I quit my job. I said goodbye to my permanent contract and associated benefits. Why this step? Why on earth would I give up my job security and trade it in against a “big unknown”? Since my first encounter with modern mobile devices, I am deeply impressed by the … Read More
Multipeer Connectivity (part 2)
In part 1 of my series about the iOS Multipeer Connectivity Framework I concluded that my solution to setup a session between 2 peers without user interaction was not working. This was caused by the mutual invitation issue: A peer continues to invite the peer that it was already connected with. In this post I wil come up with a solution for the mutual invitation issue. You can … Read More
Multipeer Connectivity (part 1)
This is the first part in a series about the iOS Multipeer Connectivity Framework. This series addresses the following question: Is it possible to set up a session between peers and exchange data without any user interaction? This way you can start ad hoc peer connections: All nearby peers that run the same app on the foreground are instantaneously connected, and can start exchanging data immediately. I … Read More
Logging Console for iOS
PFLoggingConsole is a development utility class that logs NSLog statements to the screen of a device. I find it very convenient for testing of communication between devices. I am using it while experimenting with the iOS Multipeer Connectivity framework. In this post I will explain what it does and how it works. I have created a small project on Github that … Read More